Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The late Flynn’s fabled killer fights a deadly terrorist plot in this high-action thriller. In the wake of the American withdrawal from Iraq in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein’s helicopters gas Kurdish forces. Several years later, Mitch Rapp, an assassin in the CIA’s secret Orion program, is in the Middle East to hunt down and kill a Pakistani weapons scientist. But his leads go up in smoke, and the CIA puts him on to a more pressing issue: Saddam Hussein plans to move his chemical weapons out of Iraq and into Syria. Terrorists would use them to deliver a “blow against America from which it will never recover.” Rapp will have to put a stop to that. Although he works alone, his complexion and fluency in Arabic help him blend in with the locals. He gets himself into tight, violent situations where he typically leaves a body behind. But he does have one firm rule passed on to him by CIA veteran Stan Hurley: “No innocents, no law enforcement, and no women and children.” The rest are fair game. He isn’t a superhero, but he’s extraordinarily talented and lucky. He was inspired to fight terrorists when his college girlfriend, Mary, died on Pan Am Flight 103, the plane that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. A second great love has also died, and the 20-something Rapp now lives in a “zero-sum world” with his unquenchable hatred of terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Explosions and gore come with the territory. Israel is on the case as well, and Israeli intelligence creates an attack plan code-named Double Tap, which is intended to stop the expected convoy of chemical-laden trucks. Ultimately a specific, deadly threat raises the stakes to an even more frightening level. Author Bentley remains true to the original vision of an American assassin who only kills the bad guys and comes within an inch of his life doing the job. A satisfying hit for excitement junkies. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.